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i know there have not been many sweet kookmin moments in the recent episodes which can make some shippers feel impatient. but when you look at the overall picture, don't you think, to quote kjk, some 'natural' things are happening?

if kookmin are dating i too feel they have entered a more stable phase where they don't want too much focus on their interactions. this is more obvious when they arrive for the line ups. i could see some confusion on their part about where to stand in the last few episodes. in episode 452, when jsm comes in for the opening, she has two options about where to stand. there is space on either side of sjh, either she can stand near kjk or near haha. when haha pulls her to stand near sjh, i can hear kjk let out something like an "ah". in episode 453, when the team arrives at the village, kjk looks a bit confused about which place to stand and sneaks a glance at jsm. in episode 454, kookmin and ysc are the first to arrive for the opening. when the others come in, jsm who is standing near kjk looks confused about where to stand. i feel they are trying to be less obvious before the camera.

at the same time, there are some things that are getting more obvious. it is so apparent that kjk has become more sensitive to members, especially jsj, saying certain things to jsm.

that is why the kjk-jsj bickering interests me in the past two episodes. we know jsj is very blunt and being the senior-most on the team, he must feel he has the right to scold anybody and everybody. he scolds the older members, but perhaps they are freer to make retorts compared to the newer members..

if kjk is dating jsm, it might be take its time for jsj to get used to their new personal dynamic. he cannot treat jsm as casually as he used to as kjk might mind and pick on him. after the whole kjk giving jsj a hard time in episode 453, when jsj joined the members in the opening of episode 454, the first words yjs says is "they don't want you to talk too much in the opening" and then everybody laugh. kjk turns his face away not to reveal his expression and jsm bends down, then kjk looks at her for a second. after that, jsm makes a cross with her fingers to jsj like he shouldn't be saying certain things.

in episode 454, it was obvious in another part too. after yjs says jsm can play doctor strange, haha teased her saying she shaves her chin. jsm laughed at the joke, but kjk's expression wasn't the usual when haha makes a joke. in the bus, when jsj compared jsm's face to sjh's, it got so awkward. the first person to retort was kjk who said she was sitting close to jsj while the others were laughing off the awkwardness. even when the others had moved on to talking about jsj's idol face, kjk had to annoy jsj by saying he was going to die soon. they bickered again throughout the episode.

this could also be a reason why we don't get as many kookmin moments as we want lately. there are professional dynamics which might be at odds with personal dynamic. that is why i feel kjk and jsm keep away from each other for the most part. i feel after chul min pd came back, the focus is more on keeping the old dynamics. the team divisions and the line ups also have gone back to kwangmin and spartace. but when some occasion arises where they can naturally interact like the flogging mission a few episodes back or the dance mission this episode, you can feel the amazing kookmin chemistry.

i have also got this theory that they interact more naturally when it is just lks and ysc around them. both are younger than kjk, very close to jsm and may not scold them if they act too close. perhaps the older members expect them to be more careful? in ep. 453, ysc and lks are the only ones around when jsm pulls kjk to wrestle with her. they stop fooling around when the rest join. in this episode, in the dressing room, lks and ysc are the only ones around when kjk sits near jsm and teases her. perhaps a coincidence. we have to see.

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Ahhhh the development in recent episodes, I agree with @kookminclan RunningMan things have really scaled down on-screen. To me this is a predictable step especially when the relationship becomes 'real'. In fact on a personal level l am quite happy with the progress of 'things' and actually expected the scaling back to take place much earlier. I guess their on-screen interactions had become rather too obvious, heheh.

Now, the real challenge starts for us. Finding those precious interactions will definitely be much tougher. Maybe we will have to resort to other avenues to find out the progress of 'things'. I recently did some covert snooping and found out that jsm has been following / liking certain instagrams (https://www.instagram.com/mens_cult/?hl=en and https://www.instagram.com/couplegoals/?hl=en ). I find this to be super interesting. Could it be jsm's subconscious desire is at play? When you combine the timing of these instagrams with what we have been observing, can l say that their relationship has reached a more intimate level off-screen? Heheh, what do you think?

As for the screen shots captured by @MandelBrot, they are definitely my favourite moments in ep 455. I really like the way kjk hugged and touched jsm's head. It shows their closeness.

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Now, the real challenge starts for us. Finding those precious interactions will definitely be much tougher. Maybe we will have to resort to other avenues to find out the progress of 'things'. I recently did some covert snooping and found out that jsm has been following / liking certain instagrams (https://www.instagram.com/mens_cult/?hl=en and https://www.instagram.com/couplegoals/?hl=en ). I find this to be super interesting. Could it be jsm's subconscious desire is at play? When you combine the timing of these instagrams with what we have been observing, can l say that their relationship has reached a more intimate level off-screen? Heheh, what do you think?

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I agree to what @Benji D and @kookminclan RunningMan said here!!! I sense more serious positive things between these two. Things which are not necessarily obvious and are seen on screen, but just the vibe they give off from their actions. Some more thoughts down here if you wish to read:

So, I truly truly feel that there is something 'major' going with kookmin given their extremely evident efforts to show the least of their interaction on screen these days. I can't help but think, if there isn't anything going, the usual onscreen interaction they have will be much more than what we have seen in the last few episodes. Even if by coincidence, they normally show a lot of interaction with no HESITATION before. But, the fact that, they try and be far from each other on screen these days is quite exciting to base our intuition on their actual relationship. Even then, moments where oppa isn't able to scold somin when everyone else scold her while she poses cutely with the 'avengers' outfit on or along with kwangsoo, when he quietly tries to ask jaesuk why somin was given the character despite having no connection seeing that she looked uncomfortable in the outfit or in the dressing room, where he steals glances at her few times. All of it was really cute.

For us, It will definitely be a challenge to catch their interaction onscreen, but, as a shipper, it makes me happy to see them not want to draw attention to their interaction, which In my opinion happens when they feel that what they share is something valuable and REAL. I am still a happy shipper!!!

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I wish they hadn't panned to Jaesuk and Sechan after the dance, as we missed out on seeing the start of kookmin hugging. The funny thing is that when the PD cuts back to kookmin, the 2 looked like they were in a world of their own - Haha had to come over to them for his congratulatory hug LOL. Also I love how when JSM went for a high 5 after the 2nd finish, KJK clasped her hand to pull her in for a hug; that hand on her head made it look even more cozy and warm!

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I'm a lurker here but loving this couple! I agree that they've dialled it down quite a bit in recent weeks, probably because people started noticing the little things. From their IG banter to people making Instagram couple pages, its not impossible that they've seen the videos of themselves and decided to tone it down so that they don't draw attention. However it's the little things like holding her hair while hugging her, interlacing their fingers when they high five, KJK sitting beside her when he arrived in the dressing room, the subtle looks, their way of speaking to one another that still stand out despite their efforts.

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Just wanted to add some small details, that I saw, during the current episode of RM. Although we only saw few interactions between them they are actually quite telling.

1. KJK is known to be rather of a germ phobe ie, he shy always from peps who are sick. I think a few years ago they commented about it. He can’t stand getting sick. Either he is getting mellow with age or?

Ie. In RM’s episodes of last week and this one, SM was sick. My respects because she was/is a total pro.

2. During the dance practice KJK was in his element. Usually logically thinking takes a side step when you have an euphoric rush. When he grabbed SM’s head?! That’s def not logically thinking...

3. SM is getting quite chummy with HaHa. This is a new. She is using him as a buffer because he’s married most likely. SM is closer to Se Chan and LKS, but they aren’t married. AND HaHa is one of KJK’s closest friends. They have become quite a trio which is a dynamic that is quite interesting.

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hello, really in this episode did not see much, but it shows that he did not like to see it blue. In his first hug HaHa joined the hug but K did not hug him, he was very busy hugging JSM, and the did not hug him, he was very busy hugging JSM, The poor man stayed with his arm in the air waiting for his hug, then when KJK was wrong, he decided to dance with the next couple again with JSM. And then he hugs it again, a hug that is becoming a custom since we have seen it three times between them.

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Just wanted to add some small details, that I saw, during the current episode of RM. Although we only saw few interactions between them they are actually quite telling.

1. KJK is known to be rather of a germ phobe ie, he shy always from peps who are sick. I think a few years ago they commented about it. He can’t stand getting sick. Either he is getting mellow with age or?

Ie. In RM’s episodes of last week and this one, SM was sick. My respects because she was/is a total pro.

2. During the dance practice KJK was in his element. Usually logically thinking takes a side step when you have an euphoric rush. When he grabbed SM head?! That’s def not logically thinking...

3. SM is getting quite chummy with HaHa. This is a new. She is using him as a buffer because he’s married most likely. SM is closer to Se Chan and LKS, but they aren’t married. AND HaHa is one of KJK’s closest friends. They have become quite a trio which is a dynamic that is quite interesting.

Details that make you go hmmmm?

That was pretty insightful. .

1. you are right. kjk usually keeps away from people who have a cold since he catches cold very easily in summers. jsm was not keeping well for the last two episodes and here is kjk casually hugging her and trying to pull her to his chest.

2. RIP logical thinking. perhaps he tried to do what he did in the tofu episode, hug and pull her to his chest, but she moved past him because she saw it coming

these moments where they have euphoric celebrations make the cautious kjk take a backseat and he is in his element, warm and expressive with his affection. in moments like these, it is jsm whose brain works faster. she pulls away or unclasps her hands slowly from his when holds them for long. when she goes back though, you see her cheeks all flushed. after this hug, when she goes to sit near haha, you can see the happiness on her face. they are so cute!!!

3. love the trio. you are right. haha acts as a buffer these days. whenever kjk and jsm are teamed up, haha will be the third member on the team. on sns too, it is these three who have the most interactions. jsm recently started following byul , so the friendship is deepening. it also reminded me of what kjk said about his girl having to be friends with both haha and lks.

from black kook, kjk is turning into rainbow kook. the lovely pastel shades he wears in the openings suit him. in MUD, he was wearing a colourful tshirt on a regular day out. when he came to the dressing room for make up in this episode, i was surprised to see him wearing a pink shirt. i have seen him wear shirts like those in white, grey and yellow, but never in pink. so it looks like it is not only jsm who had her spring.

it was also nice to see kjk admiring the clouds in his recent ig story. kjk in his ig usually doesn't admire anything other than his gym equipment. i was scratching my head trying to remember if i have seen him admire native korean scenery before. i missed RM for some years, so can't say what happened there. but when he catches sight of the sea in Dragon brothers, i have heard him catch a breath. still, going as far as admiring the clouds on the way, that is a new.

i am honestly worried. the colors, the clouds ... what is next? couplets?

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1. you are right. kjk usually keeps away from people who have a cold since he catches cold very easily in summers. jsm was not keeping well for the last two episodes and here is kjk casually hugging her and trying to pull her to his chest.

2. RIP logical thinking. perhaps he tried to do what he did in the tofu episode, hug and pull her to his chest, but she moved past him because she saw it coming

these moments where they have euphoric celebrations make the cautious kjk take a backseat and he is in his element, warm and expressive with his affection. in moments like these, it is jsm whose brain works faster. she pulls away or unclasps her hands slowly from his when holds them for long. when she goes back though, you see her cheeks all flushed. after this hug, when she goes to sit near haha, you can see the happiness on her face. they are so cute!!!

3. love the trio. you are right. haha acts as a buffer these days. whenever kjk and jsm are teamed up, haha will be the third member on the team. on sns too, it is these three who have the most interactions. jsm recently started following byul , so the friendship is deepening. it also reminded me of what kjk said about his girl having to be friends with both haha and lks.

from black kook, kjk is turning into rainbow kook. the lovely pastel shades he wears in the openings suit him. in MUD, he was wearing a colourful tshirt on a regular day out. when he came to the dressing room for make up in this episode, i was surprised to see him wearing a pink shirt. i have seen him wear shirts like those in white, grey and yellow, but never in pink. so it looks like it is not only jsm who had her spring.

it was also nice to see kjk admiring the clouds in his recent ig story. kjk in his ig usually doesn't admire anything other than his gym equipment. i was scratching my head trying to remember if i have seen him admire native korean scenery before. i missed RM for some years, so can't say what happened there. but when he catches sight of the sea in Dragon brothers, i have heard him catch a breath. still, going as far as admiring the clouds on the way, that is a new.

i am honestly worried. the colors, the clouds ... what is next? couplets?

So insightful, I have also noticed Somin and HAHA's closeness. And when we talk about Jong Kook wanting his girl having to be friends with his friends, now that I look back on the date that Somin initiated lol, I just thought maybe it wasn't Somin getting introduced to potential boyfriends but to Jong Kook's friends. Having Kwang Soo who is also a close friend to Somin does help lighten the mood, in deed. Probably not the case from where they were with their relationship at the time, but my delulu mind wants to think that lol

But, one thing that I just wanted to get out of my chest is that, Jong Kook made plans last year that he would love to get married by this year's fall or winter. Winter passed already, Summer is going to pass by so quick, can't wait to see Jong Kook getting married. But, how does someone make such plans unless they have someone in mind. Even though something is unbelievable I always make future plans that I can envision. Jong Kook dropping a bomb at HAHA and Sechan and often talking about marriage over the past year, makes me wonder whether he really has someone and is making plans to go ahead. Hopefully we can hear something about the colourful spring they just had.

And another thought of mine, if ever they want to go public with their relationship, I think it is going to happen after award ceremony. From what I remember Song Song couple went public after 2017 award ceremony, Lee Lee couple as well did go public after last years award ceremony. I don't know the significance but it seems rather the trend they follow.

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now that I look back on the date that Somin initiated lol, I just thought maybe it wasn't Somin getting introduced to potential boyfriends but to Jong Kook's friends. Having Kwang Soo who is also a close friend to Somin does help lighten the mood, in deed. Probably not the case from where they were with their relationship at the time, but my delulu mind wants to think that lol

This whole talk about the coffee date always makes me feel it wasn't their first time meeting outside the show. going by our theory, if kjk and jsm were potentially interested in each other and wanted to hang out and did hang out, why announce it to the entire world on RM? isn't it better not to draw attention to it? it doesn't make sense. rather, i always feel it was done for a reason. it is ysc who introduced the topic and ysc is friends with both kjk and jsm. from what we have seen in the past episodes where ysc chooses teams so that kjk can choose jsm's team or lets kjk and jsm dance together, i feel he is someone they can depend on.

i would rather say they talked about it openly because they didn't want further complications to their developing relationship offscreen if spartace turned into a full fledged loveline. didn't sjh have a hard time when her relationship was outed since monday couple was so popular at that time? even if kjk and jsm had no plans to announce anything anytime soon, they might have thought the loveline would just create complications down the line. if you remember, the episode shot before this had the heavily promoted loveline moment where kjk called sjh yeobo as part of a game. they must have understood by then that if the loveline went on for longer, there would be more demands on kjk to spice up the loveline. but this episode put some brakes on the loveline by bringing jsm into the picture. yjs even called kjk a playboy as he was asking for a loveline with jsm. i think it was the day after this episode was shot that kjk first left a comment on jsm's ig, the lols to her white heart in the snow. their offscreen interactions increased by leaps and bounds after the open talk about the coffee date.

if it was a platonic sibling date, we wouldn't have kjk reacting so positively to jsm's mom finding him eligible a few weeks down the line or hwan jin pd asking them to skip holding hands in ig.

call it a conspiracy theory or whatever, but that is my take on it. otherwise, i can't understand why kjk and jsm, who both think a public announcement is the last step before marriage, would draw so much attention to themselves by talking about meeting outside the show. yes, many of the viewers might think they wanted to get close, but since kjk was having a loveline, him meeting another female colleague outside the show would make certain people think the loveline was scripted. a loveline for kjk can work at this stage only if people think there could be some real life implications. there are some kjk fans who think he mentioned meeting jsm so that he can get out of the loveline. there could be some truth to it, but i don't think he would do it by throwing jsm who already had so much hate at that time under the bus.

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this is my take on this episode. When they are practicing for the dance at the last part kjk insist to dance with partners (my delulu mind think that he is thinking abt dancing with jsm but haha immediately hi-5 him) then when he was dancing with haha i found it weird that he made a mistake for the last step (that seems the easiest) then he again insist to dance with a pair (even now pointing to the direction of somin) hehehe and atlast he completed his own mission to dance with jsm

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this is my take on this episode. When they are practicing for the dance at the last part kjk insist to dance with partners (my delulu mind think that he is thinking abt dancing with jsm but haha immediately hi-5 him) then when he was dancing with haha i found it weird that he made a mistake for the last step (that seems the easiest) then he again insist to dance with a pair (even now pointing to the direction of somin) hehehe and atlast he completed his own mission to dance with jsm

kookmin's excuses and efforts to team up make me laugh.

when jsm had the option to form her clan, she ignored jsj and waited for kjk to find his clue claiming that she wanted to team up with kjk since he was "so fair". jsm, the queen of betrayal, worrying about the ethics of her clan member is just so heart-warming if only it was true.

when kjk wanted to join haha and jsm's team in ep. 450, he suddenly turned into a champion of gender equality. he said he wanted to bring more balance to haha's team and pushed sjh into joining the other team.

in this episode, kjk forgets the last step which is the easiest and then asks for a pair to dance with ;)) coincidentally or not, that includes jsm.

bonus loyalty points to ysc who not only 'misses the beat' but falls down dramatically immediately afterwards so that he wouldn't have to continue being the third wheel in kookmin's couple dance. he doesn't get up until kookmin finish off their dance.

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this is my take on this episode. When they are practicing for the dance at the last part kjk insist to dance with partners (my delulu mind think that he is thinking abt dancing with jsm but haha immediately hi-5 him) then when he was dancing with haha i found it weird that he made a mistake for the last step (that seems the easiest) then he again insist to dance with a pair (even now pointing to the direction of somin) hehehe and atlast he completed his own mission to dance with jsm

Ahahaha

My pink aura increasing as you read what you write. I think about it again, he acts like he did the wrong thing, even though he was dancing right. He's pointing his finger to the Sominie side as if he doesnt looking. " Let me dance with her. Ahh really i dont dance properly uffff " Right here; Imagine the cute face that KJK puffed up his cheeks

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Ahh, by the way, you may find it ridiculous but, how about we make our comments colorful? I know it is not a very different application, but I think it is very suitable for our clan. I think it would be nice to use the same spring colors in our clan as Sominie brought color to KJK's life.

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Ahh, by the way, you may find it ridiculous but, how about we make our comments colorful? I know it is not a very different application, but I think it is very suitable for our clan. I think it would be nice to use the same spring colors in our clan as Sominie brought color to KJK's life.

I am a very excited shipper

This is a very cute idea! Kjk really seems like he's brightened up recently. He wears so many pastel colours nowadays. It's been so long since he's worn something black. The same man who wore black, white and grey for years and years, suddenly has changed xD

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Also I agree with a lot of you that they've scaled down their interactions. During the opening segments, they often discuss their projects and sns interactions.... I don't know if it is because the pd has changed, but they haven't discussed kookmin's sns interactions (ft haha and sechan) at all recently

Remember the post somin made with pictures taken during the filming of the fake grandparents episode? Where she wrote 'oppa has a talent for taking pictures'

Sechan even posted a picture on his own account making fun of her. And kjk trolled him back. Haha commented as well.

Such an interaction would have surely been mentioned on the show right?? So many members were involved.

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@himneja I totally your suggestion. Yes, let's bring in more color, let's make it as colorful as kjk's and jsm's shirts. Let's have bright polka dot shirts too. We need a kaleidoscope of color, we need the rainbow. How is that for starters, heheh. Yahoo, time to go bonkers again

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Also I agree with a lot of you that they've scaled down their interactions. During the opening segments, they often discuss their projects and sns interactions.... I don't know if it is because the pd has changed, but they haven't discussed kookmin's sns interactions (ft haha and sechan) at all recently

Remember the post somin made with pictures taken during the filming of the fake grandparents episode? Where she wrote 'oppa has a talent for taking pictures'

Sechan even posted a picture on his own account making fun of her. And kjk trolled him back. Haha commented as well.

Such an interaction would have surely been mentioned on the show right?? So many members were involved.

But they haven't brought it up at all.

I wonder if it's because chulmin PD favours Kwangmin interactions? I'm surprised the PD is still pushing it when Kwangsoo is already in a public relationship. Tho Kwangsoo's face was funny in the syllables answer game when he stopped himself after saying "my" in response to the PD's question of where he would like to bring Somin. And the other members were joking that he meant to say "my house". Will no one think of Lee Sunbin (other than Kwangsoo)???

I love the maknae line interactions along with Sechan but I think this PD is skating close to loveline territory with Kwangmin which I find unsettling. Potentially making things awkward between Kwangmin or Kwangsoo and his gf.